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Gay couples prepare for weddings if ruling happens

Heidi HallFor Gannett Tennessee
Published 1:29 p.m. CT Oct. 19, 2014

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Tony Barrow, left, and Robert Vaughn, his partner of four years, live in Nashville and say they’re prepared to marry the first day Tennessee clerks issue licenses to same-sex couples.
(Photo:
Submitted
)

Tennessee same-sex couples and a number of pastors and elected officials are poised to meet up at their local county clerks' offices for impromptu weddings — should a court ruling make those unions legally recognized.

One Nashville pastor, Greg Bullard of nondenominational Covenant of the Cross in Madison, said couples can find him on the Davidson County Clerk's Office steps the day marriage recognition comes to Tennessee. For now, he's offering marriage classes so they can claim the state's $60 discount on their marriage license fee.

Volunteers dubbed "sentinels" by the advocacy group Tennessee Equality Project are charged with watching the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and, if it issues rulings in pending marriage equality cases that favor recognition, dialing clerks' offices to see which ones are willing to issue marriage licenses immediately.

That would launch a flurry of social media activity to match couples with clerks and officiants, TEP executive director Chris Sanders said.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month refused to hear marriage-equality cases out of Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Utah, leaving in place appellate court rulings overturning their marriage recognition bans. That set up a legal scenario where, if Sixth Circuit judges side with same-sex couples suing in Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky, the doors could be thrown open to ceremonies in those states, their attorneys say.

Not so fast, at least one county clerk warned. She'll be waiting for instructions from the Tennessee Attorney General's Office.

"Right now, state law says it is not recognized in the state of Tennessee," said Rutherford County Clerk Lisa Duke Crowell. "There's no gray areas about any of that. There's really not a story on it."

Robert Cook, an attorney for Williamson County, said he's been watching for a ruling from the Sixth Circuit and will be prepared to advise his clerk's office on how to proceed. The Davidson County Clerk's Office didn't respond to a request for comment.

A series of ballot issues and federal court rulings have led to same-sex marriage recognition in 32 states.

The Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments on Tennessee's Tanco v. Haslam and the other cases on Aug. 6 and could issue a ruling any day. If judges side with the attorney general, it would protect the status quo while the couples appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The attorney general's office won't comment on pending litigation, a spokeswoman wrote in an email.

Nashville couple Tony Barrow and Robert Vaughn, together four years, are taking Bullard's pre-marriage course and readying for the news that they can put it into action.

"My partner and I thought we might travel to Washington, D.C., to get married, but we want to do it where we were born, where we live and where we plan to spend the rest of our lives," Barrow said.

Rev. Deven Johnson, pastor of Salem Presbyterian Church in Washington County, said she's available to marry East Tennessee couples on Day One — what the TEP is calling the first day of marriage recognition — but made clear she's representing her denomination, not her specific church. She said she was moved to volunteer after watching her gay and lesbian friends struggle for acceptance within their churches.

"For someone to want to be married on Day One, they've obviously found somebody they want to spend their life with," Johnson said.

Contact Heidi Hall on Twitter @HeidiHallTN.

Tanco v. Haslam

• Tennessee bans same-sex marriage recognition in both a 1996 state statute and, after an overwhelming 2006 statewide vote, in its constitution.

• Three Tennessee couples who married elsewhere and moved here, including Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty, are suing for state recognition of their marriage. They say denying it is unconstitutional and places an undue burden on them.

• The Tennessee Attorney General's Office contends the state's ban is not discriminatory and creates a better atmosphere for children.

• Both sides argued the case at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 6. It was heard along with similar cases from Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan — latter case being the broadest. A ruling could come any day.

• Every appellate ruling after the Supreme Court struck down key provisions in the Defense of Marriage Act last year has favored couples.

Looking to North Carolina

Legal analysts say North Carolina provides a look at Tennessee's future regarding same-sex marriage. It's located in the same Fourth Circuit as Virginia. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Virginia's appeal of a lower court ruling overturning its marriage ban, two federal judges ruled that North Carolina's ban also was overturned.